Alchemy Inc. - Akron, OH
Alchemy, Inc. provides holistic leadership development for men in urban settings using mythological traditions, themes, and motifs to integrate ancient wisdom in a contemporary context. Alchemy, Inc. works with teenagers, fathers, university students, parolees, and others, blending West African and Jungian psychological methods that can connect men with "each other, society, human life across generations, and all life upon the planet."
www.alchemyinc.net
Alchemy Inc. wins a 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award
Read "Counselor hopes to 'extract the gold within' boys," an article in the Akron Beacon Journal about the work of Alchemy, Inc.

ArtSpring - Florida City, FL
ArtSpring's mission is to support self-growth and effective life skills through artmaking for institutionalized women and girls. Through interdisciplinary programs that incorporate movement, theater, writing, drawing, music, storytelling, music, meditation, guided imagery, and performance, ArtSpring teaches tools of personal transformation to women in juvenile and adult correctional institutions as well as other underserved social programs. Artspring is widely acclaimed for the successful outcomes of its programs, and for its positive influence on the corrections system in the state of Florida.
www.artspring.org

Center for Contemplative Mind in Society - Northampton, MA
The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society works to integrate contemplative awareness into modern life in order to help create a more just, compassionate, and reflective society. Focusing in program areas like business, law, academia, and social justice, the center uses retreats, workshops, publications, and networking to promote a stronger web of people working to bring contemplative practice into their lives and professional cultures.
www.contemplativemind.org

Center for Courage and Renewal - Bainbridge Island, WA
The Center for Courage and Renewal (CCR) is dedicated to the understanding that when we rejoin soul and role, we approach our lives and our work with renewed passion, commitment, and integrity. With this premise, CCR works to foster personal and professional renewal through retreats and programs that facilitate deep reflection on life, work, and calling. Kalliopeia supports the Courage to Lead for Young Leaders & Activists program for young leaders, which helps young people in service professions "reconnect who we are with what we do."
www.couragerenewal.org

Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World - Whittset, NC
Kalliopeia provides project support for The Inner Life of the Child in Nature: Presence and Practice, a "co-research" program among educators that focuses upon the development of inner capacities in both children and adults that "enable us to form a bond of intimacy with the natural world," (presence) and the "development of new ways of working in the world" (practice.) Rooted in the inspiration of eco-theologian Thomas Berry, the program aims to provide children the opportunity to know the natural world as a sacred reality to be venerated, and to facilitate "a shift in consciousness within the educational realm" that comes from the creation of a community of educators who support and inspire one another to "imagine a new way of being in the world on behalf of the children and the Earth."
beholdnature.org

Chicago Wisdom Project - Chicago, IL
Chicago Wisdom Project (CWP) is a mentoring organization founded on the belief that wisdom is an inherent quality of every being. While young people have the particular gift of giving wisdom novel expression, elders have the particular role of guiding this process. With this understanding, CWP partners with area youth organizations to offer holistic mentoring programs that include creative expression, contemplative practice, nature immersion, and rites of passage. By matching volunteer mentors with at-risk youth, CWP empowers young people to kindle their innate creative abundance to transform themselves and their communities toward a more meaningful and compassionate world.
chicagowisdomproject.org

Dominican University of California - San Rafael, CA
Kalliopeia provides support for the Northern California Courage to Teach program, a series of quarterly retreats for the personal and professional renewal of teachers and administrators in public schools. Courage To Teach is based upon the groundbreaking work of Parker Palmer and the unmet need to nourish the inner lives of young people and educators in our school systems. Focusing particularly on teachers, Courage To Teach retreats provide a trusting and reflective space for this devoted but underappreciated group of professionals, and are designed to rekindle the passion, commitment, and integrity that come from "reconnecting who we are with what we do."
www.dominican.edu/academics/education/grantsprojects/couragetoteach.html

Dovetail Learning - Sebastopol, CA
Dovetail Learning's The Toolbox Project (TTP) is an innovative Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum for grades K-6 that provides children 12 practical 'tools' for self-understanding and self-regulation. By managing their own resilience and fostering empathy for others, children enhance their experience of the dynamic relationship between self and other – as well as their ability to learn. Building upon the basic goodness and resilience within all children, TTP's accessible inner practices address the root causes of many of the issues facing today's youth, giving children, teachers, parents, and their communities a common language and the necessary skills to form a more cohesive, collaborative, and caring community.
dovetaillearning.org

826 National - San Francisco, CA
826 National is the central organization that provides strategic leadership, administration, and other resources to support its eight writing and tutoring centers, including San Francisco’s 826 Valencia. Based on the premise that one-on-one mentoring and strong writing skills are fundamental to success, 826 centers address the need for personal attention in overstressed schools system by matching adult volunteer mentors with under-resourced students ages 6-18. In doing so, 826 centers use the power of community to serve local youth while creating welcoming, safe, and highly appealing spaces for informal learning in urban centers. All this is accomplished with a strikingly fun, creative, and inventive spirit that naturally draws out the creative abundance of young people and volunteers.
826national.org
Watch Founder Dave Eggers' TED talk on 826 National.

Faithful Fools Street Ministry - San Francisco, CA
Faithful Fools is a group of volunteers and religious leaders called to "a ministry of presence that acknowledges each human's incredible worth" through the arts, education, advocacy, and accompaniment. By organizing "street retreats" in which retreatants spend a day in the streets with mindful reflection on their own judgments and attitudes, Faithful Fools helps shatter myths about those living in poverty, and allows participants to see the light, courage, intelligence, strength, and creativity of the people they meet. These unscripted experiences of our common humanity give rise to transformative encounters of celebration, community, and healing.
www.faithfulfools.org
Watch a Global Oneness Project interview with Sister Carmen Barsody.

Insight Prison Project - San Rafael, CA
A pioneering organization in the movement for restorative justice, the Insight Prison Project conducts a variety of in-prison rehabilitation programs that provide prisoners with the tools and life skills necessary to create enduring change. Using an intentional group process of "radical accountability," IPP provides transformational programs that aim to shift ingrained patterns of destructive behavior into conscious, life-enhancing choices. Programming includes violence prevention, substance abuse counseling, mindfulness meditation, and facilitated encounters between victims and offenders.
www.insightprisonproject.org
Watch several short ABC News videos about the work of the Insight Prison Project.

Institute for Poetic Medicine - Palo Alto, CA
The Institute of Poetic Medicine (IPM) is dedicated to healing body, mind, and spirit through the therapeutic process of hearing and writing poetry. Based on the belief that the creative and healing process of poetry strengthens the human capacity to reconnect to what has been severed, IPM offers collaborative workshops, retreats, and programs to a variety of populations including youth, veterans, prisoners, the terminally ill, refugees, and the professionals who serve them. IPM uses poetry to encourage us to discover how vulnerabilities and strengths can co-exist, allowing a deeper authenticity and "awakening soulfulness in the Human Voice."
www.poeticmedicine.com
Healing Words, Poetry & Medicine Filmed at a large teaching hospital in Florida, "Healing Words: Poetry & Medicine" tells the stories of patients whose lives have been dramatically changed by the incorporation of poetry into their recovery process. The film follows Dr. John Graham-Pole and poet John Fox as they enter hospital rooms and help patients write poems as part of the healing process.

Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal (ISHI) - Bolinas, CA
The Institute for the Study of Health " Illness (ISHI) provides education and support for health professionals who aspire to bring their hearts to their work and who are dedicated to practicing a medicine of service, human connection, and compassionate healing. ISHI’s mission is to contribute to healing the culture of health care through innovative educational programs and the formation of communities that support health care professionals to sustain their humanity and passion for their work. Kalliopeia provides support for ISHI’s Residents Program, which integrates deep reflection on the values of service, human connection, and compassionate healing for medical students during the vulnerable and stressful time of residency.
ishiprograms.org

Inward Bound Mindfulness Education - Boxford, MA
The mission of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education is to improve the lives of teens, parents, and professionals through mindfulness retreats and outreach programs that help participants cultivate awareness and compassion for themselves, others, and the environment. They do this by combining training in mindfulness, social-emotional and ecological intelligence, transformative healing, and creative expression. By providing intensive two to five day retreats, IBME offers important opportunities for deep reflection rarely available to young people today. IBME also facilitates retreats for parents and professionals working with teens to address the particular stresses adults face in meeting the needs of youth.
ibme.info
Watch a video introduction about: Inward Bound Mindfulness Education.

Mind-Body Awareness Project - Oakland, CA
The Mind Body Awareness Project is dedicated to teaching essential skills of violence prevention, stress reduction, and anger management to at-risk youth through the practices of meditation and yoga. Founded with the mission to teach life-saving skills that youth are not learning at school or in their homes, MBA classes and curricula use instruction, practice, and dialogue to help youth become aware of the destructive emotions and habitual behaviors that lead to alienation, substance abuse, crime, and violence. Classes have helped institutionalized and at-risk youth develop the confidence necessary to overcome negative patterns and promote self-awareness and empathy toward others.
www.mbaproject.org
Read "The Heartful Dodger," an article about the MBA Project from Tricycle Magazine.

Mindful Schools - Oakland, CA
Mindful Schools is a pioneer in supporting mindfulness training in educational settings. Mindful Schools uses a research based curriculum of techniques for concentration, attention, conflict resolution, and empathy, reaching over 8,500 children and 450 teachers in 34 schools, 74% of which serve low-income children, as well as a complete training program for adults. Developed as a response to turmoil in Oakland elementary schools, Mindful Schools brings mindfulness programs to public schools in California, supports teachers and administration in their own understanding and practice of mindfulness, and contributes to the movement toward creating calmer, kinder, more peaceful, and more effective learning environments throughout the country.
www.mindfulschools.org
Watch a video introduction of the: Mindful Schools Program.

Mosaic Voices Multicultural Foundation - Seattle, WA
Mosaic Voices Multicultural Foundation uses mythic imagination and traditional knowledge to develop transformative mentoring relationships and innovative forms of community healing. Applying a rare and masterful blend of storytelling, mentorship, and ceremony, Mosaic works intensively with a variety of populations including homeless and gang youth, combat veterans, refugees, and communities in crisis. Grounded in a mythic perspective, Mosaic seeks to find dynamic remedies for the alienation, spiritual dislocation, and personal isolation that increasingly characterize modern life, and to combine traditional thinking with fresh insights to develop wiser and more soulful cultural forms.
www.mosaicvoices.org
Watch Myth is the Ongoing Creation
Read Michael Meade's Blog

New York Writers Coalition - New York, NY
The New York Writers Coalition provides free and low-cost creative writing workshops, publication support, and performance opportunities throughout New York City for people who have historically been deprived of voice in American society. The Coalition believes that by writing with others in an atmosphere of respect and acceptance, participants discover the value of their own stories, gain confidence and a stronger sense of self, and become less isolated from themselves and from society: "By creating a community of writers and leaders from diverse backgrounds, we galvanize the voices of the marginalized and create opportunities for all writers to connect with the larger community. NYWC's goal is to create an inclusive city, one that is aware of the diversity of voices within it and honors the lives of all of its citizens."
www.nywriterscoalition.org

Nova Institute - Kensington, MD
Kalliopeia provides support for the Washington, DC area Courage to Teach program, a series of quarterly retreats for the personal and professional renewal of teachers and administrators in public schools. Courage To Teach is based upon the groundbreaking work of Parker Palmer and the unmet need to nourish the inner lives of young people and educators in our school systems. Focusing particularly on teachers, Courage To Teach retreats provide a trusting and reflective space for this devoted but underappreciated group of professionals, and are designed to rekindle the passion, commitment, and integrity that come from "reconnecting who we are with what we do."
www.novainstitute.org/our_work/teacher_renewal.htm
Listen to "On Parenting," a radio series and podcast with Jack Petrash.
Watch "Educating Children for the Journey" a TEDxRockCreekPark talk by Jack Petrash.

PassageWorks Institute - Boulder, CO
The PassageWorks Institute is dedicated to transforming the culture of classrooms, schools, and districts so that the inner life of students and teachers is sheltered, nurtured and welcomed. The institute believes that acknowledging students' yearning for deep connection, engaging with difficult questions about meaning, honoring critical transitions in the cycle of schooling, and supporting the quest for a sense of purpose and genuine self-expression are critical to fostering academic achievement and true safety in schools. Through workshops, curricula, research, and cooperation with government and other groups, Passageworks motivates, prepares, and supports educators to implement its model for nurturing the inner lives of students and teachers.
www.passageworks.org
"The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection, Compassion, and Character at School," an article by Rachael Kessler of Passageworks Institute. More articles to download here.


The PassageWorks Institute on Vimeo

Prison Communities International - Katonah, NY
Kalliopeia provides support for the Rehabilitation Through The Arts (RTA) program at Sing Sing maximum-security prison in Ossining, NY. RTA uses theater arts to offer prisoners a safe and supportive structure in which to develop leadership, community, positive self-expression, respect for self and others, and a sense of achievement. Weekly workshops with RTA staff and volunteers in reading, writing, public speaking, improvisation, acting, and directing culminate in original plays, monologues, and theater pieces that are performed twice each year for the entire prison population and invited community guests. Research indicates that the program strengthens cognitive abilities of participants and significantly reduces recidivism.
www.p-c-i.org/rta

Prison Mindfulness Institute (formerly Prison Dharma Network) - Providence, RI
Kalliopeia provides project support for the Path of Freedom Peacemaker Training Program for Incarcerated and At-Risk Youth, an in-depth training that integrates mindfulness-awareness meditation, body-mind synchronization, nonviolent communication, conflict resolution, and leadership skills – all grounded in the experience and context of contemplative spirituality. The program is presented to incarcerated or at-risk youth in a nonsectarian manner that encourages greater self-awareness and impulse control, and builds skills in relationship, communication, and leadership that support youth in developing a new vision for their future. Kalliopeia also provides support for the Prison Chaplaincy program, which provides resources and outreach for contemplative practice to prison chaplains in correctional facilities across the US.
prisonmindfulness.org
Watch a Global Oneness Project interview with Fleet Maull, former prisoner and founder of PDN.
Link to the very dynamic Prison Dharma Network blog and networking website.

Prison Performing Arts - St. Louis, MO
Prison Performing Arts is an interdisciplinary literacy and performing arts program that serves incarcerated adults and youth in the Missouri criminal and juvenile justice systems. Dedicated to enriching the lives of incarcerated adults and youth, Prison Performing Arts fosters individual and social change by providing current and former inmates opportunities to participate in the performing arts as artists, students, and audience members. Through the performing arts, inmates' creative energies are channeled in constructive ways that generate respect, cooperation, and self-discipline, developing skills that positively influence the prison culture and support their successful return to their families and communities.
prisonartsstl.org

Reciprocity Foundation - New York, NY
The Reciprocity Foundation's work is based on the understanding that long-term, sustainable change is only possible by tapping into the natural talents and gifts of an individual. With a focus on permanently transitioning homeless youth out of shelters, Reciprocity Foundation's holistic program combines higher education, work experience, mentorship, and wellness to guide their re-entry to society from a place of strength and passion. Kalliopeia provides funding for the Personal Transformation Program, which skillfully draws from a range of therapeutic, contemplative, and mentoring techniques to provide transformative healing opportunities to homeless and at-risk youth.
www.reciprocityfoundation.org
Read the founder's Blog

The Red Shoes - Baton Rouge, LA
The Red Shoes is a women's center that seeks to promote "the recognition of the sacred unity of life" by celebrating and nurturing the inner lives of women. Created as a space for women to gather to share their hopes, spiritual journeys, and personal challenges, the center offers opportunities for spiritual enrichment and personal growth through classes, weekend retreats, and workshops ranging from art to yoga to business management. Programs are designed to connect women's creativity, spirituality, and authenticity in an atmosphere of empowerment and healing.
www.theredshoes.org

Rudolf Steiner College - Fair Oaks, CA
Kalliopeia provides support for the Rudolph Steiner College's The Waldorf Approach Applied in the Public School Classroom and Native Americans into the Waldorf Experience programs, which provides annual training for public kindergarten and elementary school teachers in integrating the Waldorf approach in public classrooms. Founded as a response to budget cuts that have caused the removal of the arts from public schools and children's lives, these programs work to make the best aspects of Waldorf education available to a broader population.
steinercollege.edu

Sarasa - Cambridge, MA
Kalliopeia supports the Outreach Concerts program of Sarasa, an international group of musicians dedicated to performing quality classical music to incarcerated adolescents. Sarasa bridges cultural, aesthetic, linguistic, and economic barriers through the power of music, and works to bring new experiences of beauty to teens, many of whom have never been exposed to anything but a popular culture infused with toxic messages. Sarasa also performs for incarcerated adults, hospitals, homeless shelters, inner city schools, private homes of the elderly, mental health institutions, and other populations with little access to live classical music.
sarasamusic.org

ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation - Los Angeles, CA
(Fiscal sponsor: One Light International)
ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation draws upon Indigenous wisdom and a profound understanding of destiny to mentor the human potential, restore vital wellness, and create intentional communities. ShadeTree is dedicated to providing sanctuary – an agreement of the heart that gives context for the recovery of the true Self. In supporting this most authentic ground of the individual, Shade Tree brings a transformative mentoring process and training to at-risk youth, prisoners, and various civil and cultural agencies.
Watch a short video interview with Orland Bishop, Founder and Director, of ShadeTree
Multicultural Foundation (below):

Soldier's Heart - Troy, NY
(Fiscal sponsor: Patriot Hills of New York)
Soldier's Heart is a veteran's healing project that addresses the emotional and spiritual needs of veterans, their families, and their communities. Understanding post-traumatic stress disorder as a "soul wound," Soldier's Heart guides community-based efforts to heal the effects of war using strategies presented in director Ed Tick's pioneering book War and the Soul. Kalliopeia provides general support and project support for Return Journeys, a program that brings veterans to former combat zones to seek healing and peace, and that unites former combatants in a profound experience of shared humanity.
www.soldiersheart.net
Watch this Link TV Global – Spirit series episode "Forgiveness and Healing" with Ed Tick and his wife Kate Dahlstedt and their work with Vietnam War veterans.

Street Poets Inc. - Los Angelos, CA
Street Poets Inc. is a poetry-based peacemaking organization dedicated to using the creative process as a force for individual and community transformation. By providing workshops for youth and young adults at school and juvenile detention sites throughout Los Angeles, their mission is to inspire at-risk youth to discover and develop their voices as writers, artists and human beings; to empower these young people to use the skills and increased self-awareness engendered through the arts to transcend self-destructive lifestyles; and to create a healing community that unites different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic segments of the city around the transformational power of the creative process.
www.streetpoetsinc.com
Listen to "Lullaby"
Watch the video "Street Poets"

Tunefoolery Music, Inc. - Cambridge, MA
Tunefoolery Concert Ensembles is a unique group of over fifty musicians with psychiatric disabilities who play and perform music as a means of healing and recovery. Musicians perform in ensembles and solo acts in diverse musical styles for other consumers of mental health services as well as the general public, bringing education, hope, and inspiration to thousands of other consumers every year. Working against the problem-oriented approach that pervades mental health services and the stigmas of society at large, Tunefoolery's model of recovery empowers mental health consumers to be engaged participants in healing, providing positive life change through creative expression, vocational opportunity, teamwork, and pursuit of meaning.
www.tunefoolery.org

Visual Understanding in Education - Brooklyn, NY
Visual Understanding in Education (VUE) is a national organization dedicated to promoting Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), an innovative teaching method that helps students develop aesthetic literacy and creative thinking skills, while awakening their innate connection to beauty and art. The VTS method uses simple questions and a non-judgmental facilitation process to draw out students' unique points of view, accommodate multiple perspectives, and generate surprisingly creative insight in students of all ages. Kalliopeia helps support VUE's work to grow the network of facilitators, teachers, and teacher trainers bringing this method to schools, museums, and galleries.
www.vtshome.org

Wilderness Arts & Literacy Collaborative - San Francisco, CA
WALC provides students at two inner-city San Francisco high schools with an interdisciplinary academic program that uses environmental education and stewardship activities to integrate science, literature, writing, technology, art, and history – all with a pedagogical focus on the experiences of people of color. Field experiences such as hiking, camping, habitat restoration, and recycling are woven together with classroom coursework to provide the experiential foundation for a challenging academic curriculum. WALC's vision is that inner-city high school students achieve greater academic success and grow into an interconnected community as a result of engagement in a transformative educational model. WALC's model creates resilient young people with a strong connection to their own heritage and to the need to create sustainable ways of living in harmony with nature, ultimately contributing to diversification within the environmental movement.
www.walcsf.net
Listen and view WALC Stories on their YouTube channel, poetry on WALC Voices.